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Director Franklin J. Schaffner’s PLANET OF THE APES is a classic example of how sci-fi can be used to tackle controversial issues indirectly. Michael Wilson and Rod Serling’s adaptation of Pierre Boulle’s novel has the thoughtful examination of human nature that Serling’s previous work on TWILIGHT ZONE had. The story of an ape-ruled world where religious leaders control the thinking of their people is as provocative today as it was in the 1960s.

George Taylor (Charlton Heston, BEN-HUR) is an astronaut who signed up for the deep space mission to explore the outer reaches of space. He’s a cynic who hopes there is something better than man out there in the universe. When he and his fellow space explorers stumble on a planet after years of traveling, the humans there can’t speak. The world is ruled by talking apes. Taylor, having lost his ability to talk in his capture, is taken prisoner and studied by the inquisitive scientist Zira (Kim Hunter, THE SWIMMER). When Taylor tries to sign to her, she believes he is a special human that might confirm the theory of her boyfriend Cornelius (Roddy McDowall, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE) that apes descended from man. However, their religious leader Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans, ROSEMARY’S BABY) believes the theory is blasphemous and disregards Taylor — until Taylor speaks and sends shockwaves through their society.
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Director James Toback and boxer Mike Tyson have been friends for years. Tyson played himself in two of Toback’s films. I think this is the key to this documentary’s success. Tyson opens up and gives his point of view on his career and his behavior. He makes sense of actions that made no sense before.

Tyson’s early life was not easy. He was a heavy kid who was beat up often. His mother slept around with men. At an early age, he fell in with thieves and thugs. Eventually he was arrested and put in juvenile detention. That is where he got into boxing. When he was set for release his boxing trainer didn’t want to see him fall back into crime, so he sent him to see pro trainer Cus D’Amato. At first Tyson thought about robbing the old white man, but soon he came to respect him and later love him like a father.
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With his latest, Mike Judge makes strides forward as a director, but steps backwards as a writer. In both OFFICE SPACE and IDIOCRACY, there was a rawness to the framing and the pacing, but the invention of the screenplay made up for it. In this comedy, Judge makes the material slick and flow easily, but has less original things to say and less thematic control.

Joel (Jason Bateman, JUNO) is the hard-working owner of an extract factory. General Mills is interested in buying his company and his partner Brian (J.K. Simmons, JUNO) is eager to never see the troublesome employees again. While business is booming, Joel’s personal life is in a huge rut. If he doesn’t get home by eight o’clock, his wife Suzie (Kristen Wiig, WHIP IT) put on the sweatpants and he gets nothing. His eye begins to wander when they hire a new temp, the gorgeous Cindy (Mila Kunis, FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL). His drugged out friend Dean (Ben Affleck, MALLRATS) suggests Joel hire a gigolo to seduce his wife so that he’ll have a free pass to sleep with Cindy. The problem is Cindy is a con artist who has shacked up with Joel’s injured employee Step (Clifton Collins Jr., CAPOTE) in order to convince the worker to sue for millions.
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Buy It Now!

Straight comedies aren’t usually the place to look for stunning visuals. So this inconsistent 1080p presentation of Mike Judge’s laugher won’t disappoint too many fans. The colors are good, but the blacks are patchy. The sharpness of the picture pops in some scenes, making it look the best any Judge film has looked, but then other scenes look soft and flat. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack isn’t any better. The speaker balance is front speaker skewed. While the dialog is crisp, the soundscape is flat, especially in scenes inside the extract plant. The only element that utilizes the 5.1 effectively is the scoring and music.

The special features are few, short and not too impressive. The only one of note is the 11 minute making of doc titled “Mike Judge’s Secret Recipe.” The featurette skims the surface of the production, focusing a great deal of the factory elements of the story. Judge talks about his inspirations for setting the film in a factory, which is the only real depth in the special features. But it’s not much. There are some funny moments, but not enough to enlighten fans on what Judge had intended with the overall film, which is his weakest to date. The only other features include some extended moments and one deleted scenes. They add nothing.

Scorsese’s Shutter Island brings prestige to winter-spring movie season.

The first four months of the year use to be a typical wasteland for bad romantic comedies and cheap thrillers. Now summer-caliber event films are coming out as early as February. Big stars and big directors are involved. Of course hot indies will pop up from now till then, but these are the exciting releases on the board thus far.
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Rob Marshall (CHICAGO) is good at musical staging on screen, but he is no Federico Fellini. If that statement means something to you, then you’ll understand where I’m coming from when reviewing this film. Often a more cerebral experience than an emotional one, the film, adapted from the Italian musical based on Fellini’s classic 8 ½, is a thoughtful exploration of an Italian movie director in crisis during the 1960s. And because the film is so nuanced and steeped in Italian cinema history, this production made the film geek in me smile. So it’s a double edged sword, having seen 8 ½ before, it both enhances and takes away from experiencing this film at the same time.

Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis, THERE WILL BE BLOOD) is a living legend of Italian movie directing. Production of his latest film, Italia, is about to begin. The problem is that he hasn’t written the script yet. At a press conference, he sneaks out and runs away to a spa to get away and think. He pushes off his wife Luisa (Marion Cotillard, LA VIE EN ROSE) from joining him, but embraces the arrival of his mistress Carla (Penelope Cruz, VOLVER).
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James Cameron’s career has been a lead up to making this film. Subjects he’s touched on in previous films, such as the environment and corporate greed, come together in this visually arresting sci-fi event. Like STAR WARS did, he takes tried and true conventions of the genre and twists them into something exciting and new.

The world of Pandora is a kaleidoscope of glowing colors and vicious creatures, and its inhabitants are tall, sleek, sexy blue-skinned warriors called the Na’vi. The SecFor corporation has come to the world to mine valuable minerals, but it lies under Na’vi sacred grounds. Flesh and bone avatars of the aliens controlled by human scientists are used to negotiate with the Na’vi and learn the planet. When one of the scientists is killed, the corporation brings in his twin, paraplegic Jake Sully (Sam Worthington, TERMINATOR SALVATION) to operate his avatar to save on growing a new, very expensive, avatar. Head scientist Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver, ALIENS) is furious about it because Jake isn’t a scientist, but a marine grunt. Her complaints fall on deaf ears, however, as corporate hack Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN) is only interested in business, not science. This, however, encourages Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang, THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS) who sees Jake as a military spy.
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With THE HANGOVER now on DVD and Blu-ray, This Weekend’s Film rounds up some raunchy comedy for your viewing enjoyment. In addition to a black out filled trip to Las Vegas, there are bawdy stand-up comedians and an outrageous Austrian fashion journalist. Wanton drunkenness consumes the Sunday lineup with a holiday black comedy and the quintessential raunchy laugh fest.
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A different feeling sunk in as I watched ANIMAL HOUSE more than 10 years after I first saw it in college. Then I found it full of pointless debauchery and foolishness. However, now, I felt a tinge of nostalgia. Not for myself, but for a time and place. Many raunchy college party films have come after this one, trying to up the ante, but none have the dry satire underneath.

Larry Kroger (Tom Hulce, AMADEUS) and Kent Dorfman (Stephen Furst, TV’s BABYLON 5) are looking to pledge a fraternity. At first they go to the Omega Theta Pi house, where the brothers and their cookie cutter Southern prom queen girlfriends have no time for a fat kid and a geek. Kent convinces Larry to go the Delta Tau Chi house, where his father was a member. As a legacy, they have to take him. Larry is reluctant because it’s the notorious party house where drinking is a sport. But Delta House is really a band of misfits and the freshman take to being part of a group instantly.
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It has taken me far too long to come around to the work of Ramin Bahrani. Ever since his MAN PUSH CART was released in 2005, he has been a favorite of critics. Inspired by the Iranian film TASTE OF CHERRY, this drama is the best film of 2009.

Solo (Souleymane Sy Savane) is a Senegalese immigrant who drives a cab in North Carolina. One night he picks up William (Red West, COOKIE’S FORTUNE) who promises him $1,000 if he will take him to the remote mountain Blowing Rock in 10 days. Solo is an inquisitive fellow who quickly surmises that William plans to kill himself. The perpetually positive cabbie makes it his mission to convince the old man not to end his life. He does so with simple kindness. He takes William to the movies and even finagles him into staying at his house with his wife Quiera (Carmen Leyva) and stepdaughter Alex (Diana Franco Galindo).
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